Keyboard musical instruments generally have a surface comprising keys each corresponding to a musical note or tone and which are pressed or otherwise actuated in order to sound or “play” the notes assigned to the respective keys. Such instruments produce sounds in various ways and are embodied in such well known keyboard instruments as pianos, organs, harpsichords, synthesizers (digital keyboards), and accordions.
Another type of keyboard instrument is the xylophone, a musical instrument of the percussive family. The xylophone consists of wooden bars of various lengths that are struck by plastic, wooden, or rubber mallets to produce sound. The vibraphone and other similar instruments of the percussive family can also be considered keyboard instruments.
Keys on keyboard instruments typically produce a sound when depressed or contacted. These sounds can be produced by mechanical or electronic means or a combination of the two. As used herein, a “key” is intended broadly to mean all types of levers including conventional piano keys, as well as other actuation devices as applied to xylophones and vibraphones and similar percussive instruments.
Sheet music for keyboard instruments is typically notated on what is commonly referred to as the great or grand staff. The grand staff is comprised of a bass clef and a treble clef. The five lines on the bass clef correlate to five notes of distinct pitches. The notes represented by the lines of the bass clef and their corresponding pitch frequencies in hertz (Hz) are as follows: G (97.999), B (123.471), D (146.892), F (174.614), and A (220.000). The notes represented by the five lines of the treble clef and their corresponding pitch frequencies are: E (329.628), G (391.995), B (493.883), D (587.330), and F (698.456).
In Western music, the expression “middle C” refers to the note “C” located exactly between the two staves of the grand staff. The piano key corresponding to “middle C” also tends to be in the middle of a keyboard. When calculated in equal temperament with a reference of A above middle C as 440 Hz, the frequency of the middle C note is approximately 261.626 Hz.
A problem associated with conventional approaches to the teaching of reading of music (musical scores) and applying what one reads simultaneously to musical instruments, and to the keyboard in particular, is that the teaching of it at the elementary level has been focused on the recognition and naming of notes in a discrete manner. An elementary learner must read a note on the grand staff and translate that note to a letter name (E, G, B, etc.) That note is then processed and transferred to an appropriate key on the keyboard that the player activates.
Thus, in conventional keyboard instructional methodologies, one initially learns music notation by letter name, the location of each musical note on the instrument by that letter name, and the theory that ties these methods together in the naming of notes rather than intuitive placement of the beginning player's fingers on the keys.
Others have developed less conventional means to simplify the learning process by marking the keys of the keyboard with the corresponding note and/or letter symbols. These attempts can actually make the process more complex and result in additional processing of musical notation or symbols (directly on the keyboard). As a result, these conventional (and quasi-conventional) reference techniques frequently do little to advance a student's mastery of the keyboard and understanding of basic musical notation as it relates to the keyboard.